I have to chop logs just to heat my morning shower

The cost-of-living crisis is causing more people to seek big lifestyle changes but as Katie Glass discovered when she installed a wood-powered heating system, it’s not all cosy nights by the fire

- Katie Glass

LYING in bed hungover in the freezing morning I realise I've run out of kindling again and I've no newspapers left in the house. My options are either to stay in bed working, or set fire to some loo-roll to get some heat in the house. Either way, I'll have to do it without even a coffee or shower to get me going.

When I first envisaged my hippy dream of running my house solely on wood I hadn't factored in these bitter mornings, or that it would take me an hour to have a wash. In my original fantasy I was also engaged to a strapping woodsman, but sadly I failed to pull that bit off. Now with reports of a 40 per cent rise in wood-burner sales, I'm not the only one discovering the reality of living semi "off-grid".

It was summer when I started telling incredulous friends about my ambitious plans to run my whole house on wood. I'd been busily getting stuck into renovating the quaint cottage I'd just bought but was mindful that with this winter coming I needed a solution to the problem that was my ancient boiler (when it wasn't broken it was so inefficient that it barely heated rooms above tepid). I began exploring options.

A quote to fit a new oil boiler came back at around £6,000, made even less attractive by the spiralling cost of oil: when I first moved into the cottage, filling my oil tank cost £400, now it's closer to £1,000. The oil-fired Aga I'd dreamed about getting became even more fantastical.

Meanwhile, along with the rest of the UK, I've watched in a panic as my electricity bills have kept rising. Last winter I managed with electric blankets and plug-in radiators but now they, along with the dream I'd had of getting underfloor heating, are far too expensive. I started thinking outside the box for other ways to fuel the house.